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Employee onboarding checklist

How to onboard new hires and set them up for success.

👋 Welcome kit
💬 Stay in touch till D-Day
🖥 Prepare workspace
👐 Team integration
📍 First week
🎢 First month
⛰ First three months

👋 Welcome kit

A complete welcome kit centralizes all information future employees need to get started smoothly—from the answers to all their admin questions to what their first days will look like.

💡Resource:

  • Gather all this information in a tool your team uses daily to get the new hire familiar with it. Gitlab uses Gitlab to onboard their employees, Sqreen.io uses Trello and Slite uses Slite.
🚚 D-Day logistics
📄 Admin & paperwork
👨‍👩‍👧‍👧 Team presentation
🔭 Write up of organization's vision and strategy
👬 Present the onboarding buddy
❓Office life info and FAQs
💼 The first days planning: meetings, milestones

💬 Stay in touch till D-Day

Onboarding starts from the moment the new hire agrees to join your team: be sure to maintain consistent communication with the future employee until their first day.

💡Resource:

  • Use automatic emailing tools such as MailChimp and Mixmax, or others to improve your efficiency and ensure you don't miss this important step.
🎁 Send the welcome kit to the new hire
🤝 Get the buddy to reach out to the new hire
💌 Send them an email 1 business day before joining

🖥 Prepare workspace

From their work tools, to their office keys, the workspace should be ready when they start.

💻 Laptop and other devices are ready to use
⚒ New hire basic toolkit is set up
🗝 Badge/keys to get in and out of their office is set up
💳 Lunch card/pass is set up
📨 New hire is added to team emailing lists, team recurring calendars, etc.

👐 Team integration

Different companies take different approaches to welcoming team members. Some companies announce the new team member arrival with a short welcome email, other companies ask new teams members to write a quick blurb about themselves.

The most important is that the new hire feels like the team's been waiting for them.

💌 Prepare a welcome message to introduce the new hire on their first day
👋 Get the new hire to introduce themselves
📆 Plan a team lunch during the first week
📄 Prepare a candidate onboarding process survey

📍 First week

Here's a list of things to get right in the first week in the office or remotely. The manager and onboarding buddy play a big role in making sure the new hire is getting up to speed on their new job and feels welcome. But the entire team should actively participate in ensuring this is true.

🏢 The onboarding buddy should give the new hire a tour of all the facilities
🍕 Go out for a team lunch to welcome the new hire
🤝 Introduce the new hire to their team members
📆 Prepare a list of key stakeholders new hire should meet
✍ Manager <> new hire review onboarding and first month schedule
🛠 Give the new hire a tour of all the resources necessary for their work
🎯 Manager <> New hire meeting to go over roles and outcomes
🗓 Set up recurring meetings in respective calendars

🎢 First month

By the end of the first month, the new hire and manager expectations should be aligned and the new hire should be actively involved in as many aspects of the company as possible.

💡Resource:
Ideas to get the new employees involved as fast as possible:

  • Get them involved in current hiring processes
  • Get them to demo or present something they've accomplished
  • Use a tool like Typeform to quickly and actionably build this survey out.

📆 Manager should book a time with the new hire for a first month 1-1
📈 Manager and new hire fill out the Performance growth evaluation
💬 Onboarding feedback evaluation time

⛰ First three months

📝 Manager <> New hire check up
🗣 HR <> Manager check up